Books on the History of the Police, the Landmarks Commission and the Waldorf Astoria

William Devery, chief of police.CreditCreditNew York City Police Department

New Yorkers wary of overzealous policing and racial profiling might benefit from “The NYPD’s First Fifty Years: Politicians, Police Commissioners & Patrolmen” (Potomac Books), which provides some welcome historical perspective on current events, as well as a de facto endorsement by the current commissioner of the Police Department, William J. Bratton, who wrote the book’s introduction.

This rambling tour of the evolution of the department from 1898, when the city of 3.4 million people was consolidated and the force numbered 6,400, was written by Bernard Whalen, a police lieutenant, and his father, John, a retired state corrections officer and a former English teacher.

Anecdotes, if often familiar, are nonetheless priceless.

The book begins with William Devery, who was appointed chief of police in 1898 after his conviction for extortion was overturned. “They tell me there’s a lot of grafting going on in this precinct,” Devery had supposedly declared when he took command of the Eldridge Street stationhouse. “Now that’s going to stop! If there’s any grafting to be done, I’ll do it. Leave it to me.” Which prompted the journalist Lincoln Steffens to write later: “As Chief of Police he is a disgrace, but as a character he is a work of art.” In 1908, Commissioner Theodore Bingham estimated that with “Hebrews, mostly Russian,” constituting one-fourth of the city’s population, it wasn’t surprising that they made up fully half the criminals in the city. He later said his estimate was incorrect, but added, “A special knowledge of racial customs and manners is essential to the attainment of the best results by the police.”

In the 1920s, Commissioner George V. McLaughlin canceled the annual police parade because diverting officers from duty for a full day “amounted to an annual invitation to the thieves and stickup men to visit the city and pursue their criminal practice.” Mayor John P. O’Brien, asked whom he would appoint as police commissioner, famously replied, “They haven’t told me yet.”

In 1934, Commissioner Lewis Valentine was so vexed by the nonchalance of a nattily dressed accused murderer that he told his detectives: “When you meet men like this, don’t be afraid to muss ’em up.”

Published to accompany a continuing exhibition, “Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks” (Museum of the City of New York/The Monacelli Press) explores the uneven application of the landmarks law since it was signed by Mayor Robert F. Wagner. The architect Robert A. M. Stern argues in an introductory essay that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has been “frequently inconsistent, sometimes capricious, sometimes susceptible to trendiness and quite often politically motivated.”

The book assesses the economic benefits of designating landmarks (first studied under Commissioner Beverly Moss Spatt) and the impact of preserving entire neighborhoods as well as individual icons.

“The city’s historic fabric is what makes New York relevant, livable and distinct, creating value, stability and a sense of time and place,” Mr. Stern writes.

The fact-filled book by Mr. Turkel, an industry consultant, explains, among other things, the history of the hyphen (recently excised) in the name of the Waldorf Astoria, which inspired a mid-block street and even a song.